What Is Data Quality Monitoring And How It Can Help Your Small Business

A few years ago, Big Data was a buzzword used to describe the next generation of business intelligence. These days, the term itself is not used as much because it has pretty much become a paradigm. Collecting as much data as possible is in the best interest of all business owners, including those who operate small companies. With this in mind, there is a pressing need to improve the quality of data collected and analyzed. Here is what you need to know about this:

Data Quality as a Business Process

As a small business owner, do you believe all data should be collected? A decade ago, the answer would have been yes. These days, the answer should be: Only if there is a way to guarantee quality data collection. If you look at data gathering as a business process, and you should, then it makes perfect sense to ensure that you are not paying for a process that includes erroneous data.

What Kind of Data Should You Collect?

All business operations will generate substantial amounts of data points. The size of data sets is not relevant; what you want to keep in mind is that the data you capture should be accurate, complete, relevant, and timely. These are the aspects that should guide your data collection decisions. E-commerce business owners, for example, should collect all website metrics and insights as long as they meet the aforementioned criteria.

What About the Quality of Data?

Data quality monitoring is a strategy that aims to ensure your collection efforts are worth your time and money. According to this IBM report, incorrect data collection practices lead to more than $3 billion in annual costs that can be avoided by applying a monitoring solution that can validate the quality of data being gathered. One of the problems in this regard is to assume all data must be analyzed for insights; you only want to look at information and trends that can be actionable. If a fashion boutique owner wishes to only target young women, for example, it does not make sense to collect and look at data related to other customer demographics because such metrics may skew the overall data picture.

Benefits of Quality Big Data Monitoring

Actionable insights and being able to make informed decisions are the most salient benefits of quality data gathering. You could also argue that investing in a quality solution will help you avoid mistakes, which for small business owners is crucial because their margin of error is narrower. They can make whatever decision is necessary for their small business and for their customers. The small business can also use this information to keep track of the supply and demand of what they have to offer and see what will help the business and what is not doing the best in that area.

In the end, it is entirely possible for Big Data to backfire if the collection and analysis processes are deficient. This is why quality data collection systems are worth looking into. Just remember the tips and information listed above and you should be able to get the necessary data you need for your business.